The Frost
by KittyZozo3366
Summary: Wander and Sylvia have come to a frozen, barren planet. The orbble transporter isn't working, but Wander sees someone who might help.


The orbble transporter had landed on a planet, but it hadn't yet popped. Sylvia was surprised, until she saw outside. The whole world was wintery white and draped in snow, and the bubble was starting to fog up. Wander started digging through his hat, and hastily put on himself some earmuffs, a coat and mittens. He handed the zbornak a scarf and she asked, wrapping it around her long neck, "Are you sure that's all you have for me?"

"I'm sorry," he muttered, getting off of her. "Despite all the things in the hat, I don't have much winter clothes for zbornaks." He put his hand against the transporter; not only had it fogged up, it was beginning to freeze up as well. He started to knock on it, hoping it would break, but he wasn't strong enough. There was a mighty yell from behind. "HYAH!" Sylvia broke through the frozen orbble transporter, allowing them a way out.

~*The Frost*~

The world around them was covered in ice and snow, no signs of life around them. Without it, it would've been a regular Coniferous forest, and a nice place to relax. But with it, they were in danger of freezing, and needed shelter fast. Sylvia started complaining about why they couldn't have landed on some nice place with warm weather and maybe a beach, but Wander saw something off in the distance. Even in the snow, he could make it out; a figure about his size and shape, well, minus his hat. He smiled at it warmly, even if the figure couldn't see it.

"Wander, are you even listening to me?" Sylvia came over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. She got a little nervous when he didn't even seem to move. So she turned him around, and she saw he had the brightest smile on his face.

"Sylvia, I think I just saw...another star nomad!" He turned back and pointed to where he saw the figure, but even through the snow, he saw it'd disappeared.

"It must've just been the snow in your eyes, buddy." Sylvia patted his shoulder comfortingly then motioned for him to get on her back. He got on, and they headed to the snow-covered forest, though Wander was sure it was a star nomad he saw.

"It wasn't the snow in mah eyes," he pouted. "Either that, or it was a really small tree."

"Wander, even if it was a star nomad, I don't see any reason why we would need to help them. I mean, you guys all have thick and fuzzy fur to keep you warm, but I…" she let out a sigh, looking at her shivering body. "I don't. And that means, we need to find shelter before nightfall." Contemplating over his friends words, Wander nodded after a second of thought, agreeing to himself that her protection from the cold was more important than anything else right now.

"You're right, Syl. But even if it wasn't a star nomad, it would've been nice to meet 'em!" They continued forward, trying to cover as much ground as they could before evening. As they went on, Sylvia's shivers became worse and worse. It got to the point where she was barely moving at all and starting whimpering, "Coldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcold…" Being the rider, Wander noticed this and pointed to a large tree up ahead. "I think we should start making shelter for the night."

"G-good idea," Sylvia replied, her teeth starting to chatter. Both of them sat under the tree, Wander leaning into the tree's trunk. Turned out this was a bad idea, as snow came down from the piney branches.

Wander had set up a pretty good camp by the time night had fallen. He stripped some other trees of their branches, taking dead ones, but live ones too if needed. A fire was built distant enough it wouldn't catch that tree or any others on fire, but close enough to provide warmth for both the star nomad and zbornak. Wander had also started to prepare food, a meal consisting of popcorn and hot chocolate. Sylvia sighed as she ate the meager meal.

"I wish your hat gave out more food."

"I'm sorry Sylvie, but you know this hat has a mind of its own." Wander put a hopeful hand into it, but pulled it back out after a few seconds of getting nothing. "It's not giving me anything tonight. I dunno why…"

"Maybe it wants me to starve to death." She crossed her arms and glared at it. The hat of course, didn't respond; however, if Wander had it off, it'd probably be smiling. Suddenly, there was a low growl from not too far away. Wander got up and dashed to Sylvia's side.

"I hope that's your stomach, S-Sylvia…" the star nomad whimpered as the growling grew louder.

"I wish it was, Wander!" her voice sounded wavering as well. Suddenly, a great *whoosh* as something came down extinguished the fire. The sound of howling and the shadows they saw made them realize what was in front of them.

"Snow wolves!" the star nomad screamed, and ran for cover by the tree. He knew his best friend could handle this. Sylvia growled back at the snarling beasts as four surrounded her. When one sprang for her, she quickly jabbed it in the jaw. That didn't stop the others, though. The three other wolves leapt as soon as their friend hit the ground. One grabbed her by her free hand, another tackled her by hitting her chest. The third wolf landed not as close, but it bit at her tail. The zbornak let out a wail of pain.

"Sylvia!" Wander was about to run out and try and stop them, but something else jumped down and made them run. A snow wolf's only weakness is fire, so whomever they were, they were handy with a torch. They waved the torch around, making the wolves flee and whimper. Both Wander and Sylvia looked in awe at them; who was their mysterious rescuer? The alien seemed to be wearing heavy winter clothes like Wander: a warm coat, hat, and snow goggles. Come to think of it, they looked almost the same shape as Wander, albeit smaller.

"It's a star nomad!" Wander gasped. Sylvia came over to him, only for him to hold tight to her arm and squeal, "I knew I wasn't wrong!" The star nomad lifted up its snow goggles and smiled at them. Wander's first instinct was to hug the stranger. "Oh, thank you so much for saving us, new friend!"

"You're….welcome…" the star nomad squeaked; Sylvia noted the voice was female.

The zbornak chuckled at the new friend, "Don't worry, he does this to almost every new person he meets." Wander let the star nomad go, and she gasped for air. Once she was able to respond, Sylvia asked, "So what's your name?"

"P-Penny. My name is Penny."

Penny took them to her small cave home. Inside she had lanterns, extra winter clothing, food, sleds, about everything she needed to survive the harsh weather outside. She already had a fire built inside, and Wander and Sylvia immediately sat by it, freezing from being outside for so long. Their new friend also had preserved food; mostly fruits and some dried meat. Wander and Sylvia-especially Sylvia- were happy to eat it.

"You're lucky I still have preserves. The summer here's a short time of only a month," Penny explained as her new friends ate. "The fruit grows pretty fast and it makes it easier to hunt."

"I'm glad you have it too," Sylvia said once she was done eating. "Wander's hat was being uncooperative, as usual." Wander simply nodded and took the hat off to show it to Penny. She simply smiled at it.

"Oh, you have one of those hats." Penny gave a knowing smirk, and Wander gave one back. Sylvia just rolled her eyes; must be some inside star nomad thing.

Wander put the hat back on and stated, "Me and Syl need some way off this planet. Our only means of transport froze up and I think it'll happen again."

"Oh! Well, I have just the thing." Penny scooched away from the fire and moved away her sled. It was a mode of transportation, sure, but there was a different one underneath it, one that would reach the stars and beyond.

"A jet pack!" Wander exclaimed, happy there was a way to get back to exploring.

"A jet pack…." Sylvia repeated, finding it strange Penny had just what they needed. "Where did you get it?"

"Well, I was exploring somewhere during the summer season and came across this abandoned spaceship and some corpses. I looted them and I found this an' some helmets!" Penny pulled out two helmets, but the star nomad and zbornak were a little shocked by her reply.

"Corpses?" Sylvia asked.

"Abandoned?" Wander asked too.

"Y-yeah…" she let out a nervous chuckle. "They must've not survived the winter…" The inseparable pair exchanged a nervous look, but Penny let out a cough to turn attention back to her. "You best wait until morning to leave; the worst of the storm'll be over by then. I think we all should rest 'til tomorrow."

Wander went back to smiling. "That sounds perfect, Penny. C'mon, Syl; let's go to bed." The orange nomad took a blanket from his hat, only to settle into the accessory a second later. Sylvia threw the blanket over her body and snuggled in it right next to her best friend. Penny settled opposite of them, the fire between them.

Sylvia tried to sleep, really, but she was nervous about Penny. I mean, she was a stranger who seemed to have exactly what they needed. The more she thought about it, the more it sounded like a horror movie. All that Penny needed to do was trap them and make sure they stayed "forever and ever and ever!"

As the last embers of the fire were dying, the zbornak noticed Penny took one out to use as a torch. She was leaving. Curious to where the star nomad was headed, Syl put on her scarf and went out of the cave after Penny. She followed her until they were out to the edge of the woods. She really wished she had her blanket with her… When the forest was just on the horizon, Sylvia then saw where Penny was headed. It was a small space cruiser that could hold no more than four people. At least she hadn't lied about that… Sylvia thought.

Penny opened the doors of the cruiser, searching for something. The zbornak looked through the windows to see what Penny was doing, keeping her head down in fear of being spotted. The star nomad went for a small leather-bound book near the control panel, and flipped through it. Sylvia assumed it was a captain's log. She must be looking through it for fun, she thought. There's probably not much else to do out here…

Sylvia was about to make a quiet way back to the cave when she stepped on something that snapped, hard. She saw it was a corpse, and she screamed, falling right into the side of the space cruiser. She groaned, "So much for subtlety…" as Penny came out to see what was going on.

"Sylvia? What are you doing here?"

The zbornak sighed, "I didn't know where you were goin' and I thought you would…"

"Abandon you?"

"I was gonna say 'get outta chainsaw', but that works too."

Penny frowned at her. "I guess it's pretty obvious how lonely I am out here…"

"Don't you have your folks? You seem pretty young."

"They went out on their own a year ago. They figured I could take care of myself now, and left."

There was a pause before Sylvia asked, "So why didn't you go with them? I mean you could travel with them, just at least until you got off this ice ball…"

Penny let out a gasp. "This is not an ice ball! It's my home."

The zbornak gave a knowing smirk. "Ah, so that's why. You don't wanna leave your home."

The star nomad nodded enthusiastically. "It really is a cool place to live. There's so many vibrant and fearsome creatures out here, from snow wolves to ice bats! Speaking of bats, you wouldn't believe the cave I found last summer! The tunnels are enormous down there! And there's the most fantastic fruits here, not to mention the variety of meat."

"Man, you sound just as passionate as Wander about amazing sites." Sylvia ruffled her hair affectionately. Near the trees on the horizon, the sun was beginning to appear as well. "We better get back to Wander. And then him and I will leave soon…."

"Alright, your jetpack is fulla fuel, helmets are on…" Sylvia and Wander were just about to leave; the jetpack was strapped to Sylvia's saddle, Wander was sitting on it, and both had helmets on. Penny was checking over things, nervously smiling at them. The inseparable pair were the first contact with anyone friendly she'd had in a while, and only the zbornak knew this. As they loaded up to leave, Sylvia couldn't help but glance the hat just a couple times. There just had to be something in that thing the hat knew she absolutely without a doubt needed and would help with her loneliness.

"Hey, Penny, before we leave, there's something we should do," Sylvia said, taking off Wander's hat.

"There is?" Wander asked, curious what she would do with the hat. Syl held it out to Penny by the brim.

"Go on, dig in it." Penny cautiously reached her hand in and dug around. She was about to pull what she felt in her hand out, but it was heavy. She put in both hands to pull it out, and pulled out a giant metal box that had many gauges and dials, with headphones dangling from it.

"A radio set!" the star nomad gasped, setting it down.

"Yep, you just work the dials, and you can get anyone in the galaxy!" Sylvia smiled as Penny petted her head. "Well, we best be going, kid. Good luck!" The zbornak started up the jetpack, launching her and Wander into the airless void of space. Unfortunately, they only got far enough that the planet was just below them and they could float in space. "Aw, grop it!"

"Wait, Syl! You forget!" Wander pulled out from his hat the orbble juice and surrounded them in a bubble. Of course the transporter worked much better in space than on frozen ground.


End file.
